What base pay for cold emailers?

pixelperfect

I'm hiring cold emailers to find their own leads - we give them the ideal client profile and they can use any method: email, SMS, LinkedIn, cold calls. We offer 5% commission per sale, with packages ranging from $700 to $1,100. But it's a one-time payment, so no recurring revenue. Most of that profit goes back into producing the product. We need 15 sales a month per rep.

The real question: what base salary makes sense on top of that 5%? For example, $500 a month plus the commission. We're not looking for spammers - we want people who craft custom messages for genuinely interested businesses, to protect our reputation. So what's a fair base to attract the right talent?

buggedout

You've basically answered your own question - 5 % per sale is already the rate you're paying, so what's the hold-up?

For this kind of lead-gen work, commission-only is usually the cleanest structure. A few things to think about:

Work out your true CAC (including time on your end, tools, ad spend if any).
Use that to back into a fair commission per cent. If 5 % covers your costs and leaves margin, stick with it.
If reps are bringing in high-ticket deals, a lower percentage might be fine; if it's volume play, keep it higher.

The model itself isn't the issue - it's whether the numbers line up on your side. Crunch the CAC, then lock in the percentage that keeps you profitable.

tiktokguru

Honestly, it comes down to hours and location - you can't just slap a percentage on it. Give them a proper base salary first. 5% commission is pocket change; the base is what actually attracts decent people in your market. Pay peanuts, get monkeys, as they say.

But honestly? If you're having a meltdown because a few people misread your post, you're probably not ready to hire or manage anyone. That's a bigger red flag than the pay structure.

communityfirst

Honestly, think bigger. A base of $500/month with a bonus for hitting 20 sales is a decent starting point, but the real magic is in showing people a path that actually rewards serious effort. When the total pool is only $700-$1,100, chipping 5% off that isn't going to inspire anyone who knows what they're doing. The best performers want to feel like their hustle directly scales with the wins they bring. It's not about pennies - it's about building a structure that attracts and keeps the kind of talent that turns a small account into something massive.

digitalnomad

💸 Commission-only at 5% with no base pay? That's a hard pass for most talented cold emailers.

• Skilled people usually expect some hourly guarantee - lead generation is just too inconsistent to rely on straight commission.
• You'd probably get much stronger candidates offering something like £15-20/hour plus a 2-3% commission on top. Much fairer for both sides.

gmbpro

5 % per sale is pretty standard for commission-only roles, but the real variable is lead source.

If the leads are warm and handed to you, 5 % on a $700 product might cover your time.
If you're expected to source everything yourself, that rate works out well below minimum wage once you factor in prospecting hours.

In my experience, flipping the model to charge per meeting rather than per sale makes the maths cleaner for both parties. You get paid for effort rather than conversion luck, and the client only pays for genuine pipeline activity.

splittester

After 35 years in sales, I have to weigh in - but through a marketer's lens, this is about brand value, not just commission structures. What you're essentially asking for is someone to become the voice of your business. The way that voice sounds - cold, scripted, or genuinely consultative - is the difference between a lead that warms and a lead that recoils.

You want someone to build your pipeline from scratch? That's not a $500/month gig. That's a $5k-$10k monthly retainer minimum, because they're becoming an extension of your brand. Their tone, their timing, their ability to not sound like every other spammer - that's what you're paying for.

And that 5% commission on what - a $700 deal? A $1,100 one? Over 36 months? That's a pittance for the energy required to nurture a cold contact into a closed relationship. I see owners hiring "lead gen gurus" and wondering why the leads feel threadbare and the pipeline dries up. It's because they're buying a drab list instead of funding a human conversation.

The real question isn't how much to pay. It's: do you want someone who builds your business, or someone who just fills a slot? Because the price difference is the texture of the outcome.

tagmanager

the real cost isn't the base salary - it's the research time. getting to know a business, their actual situation, and crafting something that speaks to where they are right now. that's the bulk of the work, and a lot of reps rush through it or skip it entirely. a signal-first approach, rather than pulling from an old list, makes all the difference. worth considering before you bring someone on

roichaser

You're right that the question was simple, but a flat range is almost useless without context. In B2B SaaS, the answer depends on churn rate, LTV, and whether it's a one-time fee or recurring. I've seen perfectly reasonable price ranges kill deals because nobody stopped to think about what the buyer actually values. So yeah, it's not rocket science - but pretending a single number fits every scenario is naive.

pixelperfect

Well, 5% is commission, not base pay - that's the real sticking point here. I'd be asking the same thing: how much should you actually put on the table as a retainer before that 5% kicks in?

For a monthly retainer of around $500 plus commission, it's worth thinking about what the role actually demands. If they're doing full-cycle sales work, that base needs to cover their time and stability - otherwise you're just asking them to gamble on leads that may or may not convert. Someone in a similar situation once told me they settled on $400-$600 a month for a part-time sales role with similar commission, and it worked because the base covered the admin and relationship-building side.

So the real question is: what's the scope of the work? If it's just closing warm leads, $500 feels fair. If they're also prospecting and nurturing, you might need to go higher.